For centuries, travellers to the southern tip of South America returned with astonishing stories. They spoke of a land swept by fierce winds and endless plains, inhabited by people of extraordinary size. Some claimed these inhabitants were giants, towering far above ordinary men. Their tales captured the imagination of Europe and helped create one of the most enduring geographical myths in history: the Giants of Patagonia.
A sailor giving a Patagonian woman some biscuit for her baby. Credit: William C. Sturtevant
The first mention of the giants appeared in the Italian chronicler Antonio Pigafetta’s account of Ferdinand Magellan's travels. In 1520, the Portuguese explorer Magellan anchored along the coast of what is now Argentina. One of the chroniclers of the expedition, Antonio Pigafetta, described meeting local Indigenous people whom the Europeans considered remarkably tall. According to Pigafetta, the tallest Spaniard barely reached the giant's waist.
One day we suddenly saw a naked man of giant stature on the shore of the port, dancing, singing, and throwing dust on his head. The captain-general [i.e., Magellan] sent one of our men to the giant so that he might perform the same actions as a sign of peace. Having done that, the man led the giant to an islet where the captain-general was waiting. When the giant was in the captain-general's and our presence he marveled greatly, and made signs with one finger raised upward, believing that we had come from the sky. He was so tall that we reached only to his waist, and he was well proportioned...
Such descriptions were sensational and quickly spread across Europe. The region soon became associated with giant inhabitants. Magellan's men reportedly called the local people "Patagones," a term whose origin remains uncertain. In Pigafetta's time, it was assumed that the word derived from pata or foot, and "Patagonia" was interpreted to mean "Land of the Bigfeet". Another theory suggests that it was inspired by a giant character named Patagón from a popular Spanish romance of the time. Over the years, the name became attached not only to the people but also to the vast region itself, which came to be known as Patagonia.
A century later, in 1628, Sir Francis Drake’s nephew detailed his uncle’s circumnavigation in The World Encompassed, and mentioned once more the legendary giant-dwellers of Patagonia. Drake the nephew suggested that, though the native people were far taller than any Europeans the crew had seen, perhaps Magellan’s crew had exaggerated the size of the Patagones. Drake reduced their size from 10 feet to 7 feet and a half.
Magellane was not altogether deceived, in naming them Giants; for they generally differ from the common sort of men, both in stature, bignes, and strength of body, as also in the hideousnesse of their voice: but yet they are nothing so monstrous, or giantlike as they were reported; there being some English men, as tall, as the highest of any that we could see, but peradventure, the Spaniards did not thinke, that ever any English man would come thither, to reprove them; and thereupon might presume the more boldly to lie: the name Pentagones, Five cubits viz. 7. Foote and halfe, describing the full height (if not some what more) of the highest of them. But this is certaine, that the Spanish cruelties there used [referring to Magellan’s hostage taking], have made them more monstrous, in minde and manners, then they are in body; and more inhospitable, to deale with any strangers, that shall come thereafter.
Reports of these giants continued into the 18th century. In 1766, Captain John Byron (grandfather to the poet Lord Byron) also returned from a circumnavigation of the world. Soon after, a rumour spread that the crew had seen a tribe of nine-foot-tall natives in Patagonia.
1840s illustration of Patagon encampment. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Subsequent voyage by Wallis and Carteret in 1767 brought reports that the Patagonians they saw were mostly from 5’10” to 6’ tall, the tallest being 6’7”. French explorer Louis de Bougainville reported that the tallest Patagonian he came across was only 6’4” tall, while Guyot and Giraudais reported in 1766 that the shortest they met was 5'7". These conflicting reports led some commentators to suggest that perhaps the voyagers had met different population in the region.
When an official account of the travels came out in 1773, Byron roundly debunked the myth. However, he did note the Patagones’ exceptional height recording them to be 6 feet 6 inches tall.
Scholars believe that many of the Indigenous inhabitants encountered by European explorers belonged to a group known as the Tehuelche. The Tehuelche were indeed taller than the average Europeans of the 16th century. At a time when many Europeans stood around five and a half feet tall, Tehuelche men could exceed six feet in height. Combined with their robust build, heavy cloaks made from animal skins, and the tendency of sailors to exaggerate their adventures, they appeared enormous to foreign visitors.
As more reliable information reached Europe, the myth gradually faded. Measurements taken by explorers showed that the Tehuelche were generally between six and seven feet tall, which was impressive for the era but far short of the towering giants described in earlier stories. By the 19th century, most scholars regarded the legends as exaggerations rather than literal truth.
References:
# William C. Sturtevant. Patagonian Giants and Baroness Hyde de Neuville's Iroquois Drawings
# Patagonian Giants
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